Lloyd Webber Foundation invests £30k in music project for young offenders

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s foundation has given £30,000 towards a music project for young offenders.

Finding Rhythms provides courses and mentoring in 13 young and adult prisons across the UK, engaging young prisoners with music to promote new behavioural patterns and reduce the risk of them reoffending.

The funding from the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, spread across three years, will allow 10 people to take part in a six-week course each year.

Part of the project will see a temporary studio created within the prisons, where participants will create a professionally produced album in collaboration with top UK artists.

Emily Vermont, the scheme’s co-founder and executive director, said the money gave the project some security in “an uncertain funding landscape”.

She added: “This helps bring much needed stability to our income stream, allowing our team to concentrate on supporting a greater number of people serving time in prison, to transform their prospects for the future.”

The project was established in 2013 and has since seen 96% of participants pass a BTec certificate in employability skills.

Announcing the funding, Madeleine Lloyd Webber, trustee of the foundation, said: “Finding Rhythms use music to engender creativity, responsibility and commitment. The foundation is passionate about the power of music and it has never been greater than in this project, which can be the cornerstone of a crime free life for the participants.”

The grant follows the announcement of a £15,000 funding boost to a scheme supporting young musicians from disadvantaged backgrounds in London.

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